One lonely, ugly, silver coin...

Riccar · February 2, 2006 7:23AM

I found one, lonely, ugly silver coin for the month of January, but it turned out to be more like the ugly duckling...

There's an empty field that Demodigger and I used to hunt (over a year ago), but this field had one more coin sitting out there waiting for me to find it (maybe more?) This field has LOTS of metal trash. We had speculated that there was an auto-shop there back in the 1940's. We nicknamed this field a couple things like: "the piggy bank" (due to all the coins), and "the grave yard" (due to the "dead" auto parts/pieces). With all the things we found in one pile of dirt (mercs, Washingtons, wheatback cents, war nickels, buffalo's, marbles, one walking liberty half, a chauffeur's badge, and LOTS of car parts), we figured this pile came from an old auto shop trash pit. Oh, and one thing about the dirt in this pile- it was oily! Due to the automotive oil, most coins came out looking like they were dropped yesterday (decades of soaking). But, getting that smell off your hands after each outing was a chore! (P-yew!)

So, earlier this week, I decide to go check things out and dig all signals over at the "graveyard." Digging all signals seems to be idiotic for this field, but within about 10 signals (all pieces of lead, iron or steel), I get a signal that's bouncing all over but the sounds are all between the zinc penny and silver quarter range. I dug down about 3 inches and pulled out a few chunks of lead that each had a nice tone. Each time I swung the coil over the hole, there was still another target in there. Then, about the 4th target to come out of the hole was this little round disc:

I first thought, "oh great, a brown, crusty wheatback" but then after wiping it a little, I could see something around the sides that made me think it was the wreath on the back of an Indian Head cent. I held it up closer, and that's when I could barely see "one dime" in the center of the coin. I was really hoping to see Lady Liberty "sitting" on the other side of the coin, but after studying it, I could tell it was a BUB. (beat up barber

) Nice to find a coin that pre-dated our auto shop theory.

So the end of the story happens at home... I decided to soak this ugly duckling in some coin cleaning solution. I let it soak during dinner time (highly corrosive stuff- No, not the dinner, the coin cleaning solution!) After dinner, I start to rub the coin with my thumb and I see that a lot of the crud starts to come off fairly easily, but some stuff didn't seem to want to come off. As the front side of the coin started to show up, I could see that this coin must have been dropped shortly after it was placed into circulation. Under the magnifying glass, I could see that it had a "full Liberty" on the head band. Also, check out the sharp denticles that started to show up:

Now I'm really thinking this coin is so sharp, I want to see if I can get all the crud off without making this coin look like it was cleaned. (OK, here's my caveat/reminder: Never clean valuable coins! I figured this one was already in bad shape and decided I didn't have anything to lose. Just ask LM or Millennium about how the percentage of a coin's value goes down when you clean it... something like 60-70% less?) After adding a lot more "elbow grease" and giving it many more coin cleaning solution baths, here is what it looks like now. What a nice surprise to see such a sharp coin after the way it first looked when it came out of the ground... 1908-S Barber dime:

Sorry for making a short story long, but I enjoy reading the other posts with a lot of details so I thought I'd give everyone more of a play-by-play...

HH, Rick

pocketpiececommems · February 2, 2006 7:25AM

I have never seen silver crusted like that. It is amazing how well you cleaned it up. Way to go!!!!!!!!!!1

Riccar · February 2, 2006 7:35AM

Thanks PPC.

I think it may have to do with all the other metal (especially iron) that is in the soil out in this field. You can walk around out there and find pieces of metal with every step you take (on the surface!)

I've seen coins like this before when they come out of the early dump sites... sitting in trashy soil for decades. Maybe something to do with the adhesion of different metals/chemicals reacting to each other. One of our resident chemists could probably chime in and give a good explanation...

KeithinMD · February 2, 2006 9:55AM

Super work Riccar. If there ever was a coin that should be cleaned, that was it. In this case a little gentle cleaning surely increased its value.

DUBBA · February 2, 2006 10:02AM

nice story....cool find..... i bet you can't wait to meet your daughter ,wtg!......our 2nd is due in mid july, will find out his/her sex in a couple of weeks...take care

Riccar · February 2, 2006 1:40PM

Thanks Keith.
Interesting... I hadn't thought that by cleaning a coin I could actually ever increase the value of a coin, but you're right, in this case it sure did. (again, welcome to the board... looking forward to hearing about your outings and finds!)

Thanks Dave.
Yeah, this will be our 3rd and we're looking forward to seeing her soon. Congrats on your second and keep us posted in a couple weeks (it's been a lot of fun for us to find out in the docs office... unforgetable moments

)

loditom · February 2, 2006 2:31PM

Boy Ric that barber sure was ugly

but she came out very nice

So you got a 3rd one coming,congrat's

You know your in more trouble with 3

I have 3 girl's and let me tell you what,sometime's I think they were sent here to drive me insane

and I haven't even hit the teenage year's yet

There good kid's and am glad there around to make me laugh and to teach them thing's.Enjoy and HH,Tom

Riccar · February 2, 2006 4:00PM

Thanks Tom!

So now you know why I was so eager to finally meet you when I heard you were going to be down my way at the earthquake demo last year... I knew if I didn't meet up with you then, it'd be a looooong time before we'd meet. I had told my wife, I gotta get out to meet this guy that I've known for a couple years but have never met him face to face.

Wow, 3 girls = 3 teenage girls in the years to come. That's a sobering thought.

I'll have 2 girls and one boy... so an even crazier thought is my wife and I thinking we should go for #4 so our son could possibly have a brother.

lordmarcovan · February 3, 2006 6:51AM

Not only is that a fantastic find, but the transformation you pulled off by conserving that coin is nothing short of amazing. I've never pulled off such a successful cleaning, even with electrolysis.

Riccar · February 3, 2006 7:13AM

Thanks Rob.
It definitely wasn't easy. It was like a surgical process... I had Ezest, paper plates, toothpicks, Q-tips, a cotton cloth, a rubber glove, a magnifying glass, and a dab of baking soda sitting on the table while "watching" tv with my wife during this event. I can be somewhat of a perfectionist and after this was done, I could still see things on this coin and think "awww, bummer," but overall, I'm very happy with the way it turned out. It's by far the sharpest Barber coin that I've ever found.

lordmarcovan · February 3, 2006 7:36AM

I've only found two Barber dimes that were even close to that one. Fortunately no surgery was required in their case, beyond a little toothpaste.

NCS would be proud of the job you did. Maybe you have a potential career in the conservation biz.

I was digging with Michael Swoveland ("Aethelred" on the World Coin Forum) at one of my sites in North Carolina years ago, and he was red hot that day- he dug five pieces of silver, and one of them was a 1908-D dime that had AU details as nice as yours, as I recall, and it wasn't crusty, either- as I remember, it even had traces of luster left after he rinsed it off. Too bad he quit diggin' and does all his coin hunting on the Internet these days.

lordmarcovan · February 3, 2006 7:38AM

If Millennium should be reading this thread: hey, Steve, how 'bout showing some of the pics of those high-end Barber halves and or quarters you dug, that picked up that nice colorful toning over the years?

Many of the coins I dug ten years ago and cleaned have since picked up nice secondary toning in my dig album.

goldrush00013 · February 3, 2006 7:46AM

Nice work Rick!

Excellent job on cleaning her up. She looks great!

John

Riccar · February 3, 2006 8:11AM

Thanks Rob... but, I won't quit my day job

I'd love to see Steve's examples.
By the way, how do you store your "binder coins" to get the toning you like? I was thinking about placing this one in a 2x2 but wondered if that would slow down the toning process. Also, do you use anything to "encourage" the process?

Thanks John.
OK. Now it's your turn. I hereby hand off the Barber baton to you...

lordmarcovan · February 3, 2006 8:46AM

My good coins are all in flips and 20-pocket pages. Perhaps the paper inserts of the flips cause a little toning, but mostly it's just time and atmosphere.

The Wheaties and nonsilver Jeffersons and most post-1950's tokens or world coins, which are keepers but not quite good enough for the main album, all go into either a jar or some Whitman folders. This is a fun way to keep Wheaties, since if one is detecting long enough they become a rather commonplace find, but if you can fill a hole in your folder, even a humble Wheatie is twice as fun to dig.

Riccar · February 3, 2006 9:02AM

OK. I'll throw it in the 2x2 and place it in my binder.

Concerning the Whitman folders, a friend recommended that and yes, it does add more excitement to digging a wheatback again.

HKnJ · February 3, 2006 10:12AM

Sweet find.

streeter · February 3, 2006 11:04AM

I don't dig but the stories here are just great.

What is the most valuable coin you guys have dug?

lordmarcovan · February 3, 2006 11:17AM

<< <i>What is the most valuable coin you guys have dug? >>

For me, it's probably this one (depending on how much wants to deduct for its environmental damage, which isn't too bad)

...or this one.

This one is probably third in monetary value but far outweighs the others in historical and/or archaeological value. It's my oldest, and El Numero Uno in terms of importance amongst my dug coins. It made the Atlanta papers, and was also a conversational icebreaker that helped me meet my wife. So it's definitely my most valuable in terms of sentimental value.

Riccar · February 3, 2006 6:29PM

I'm not sure which coin I've dug would be the most valuable, but here are my guesses:

1867-S Seated Half Dollar in excellent condition
1854 Seated Quarter (also in pretty good shape but not like the seated half)
-and-
Not sure if this one is worth as much (would need one of the world coin guys to give me a guess), but similar to what LM said, this would probably be my favorite and that places more value on it for me...
1796 1 Reale minted in Seville, Spain

Zot · February 5, 2006 4:21AM

Great story and good job with the cleaning! Sharp coin!
Now, I'm looking forward to seeing you pull off the same feat with a shield nickel...

Condition rarity is something one easily forgets when looking at gurus' posts with great coins... finding the type is one thing, finding the type and in great condition is quite another matter...

-Z

Riccar · February 7, 2006 2:08AM

Thanks Zot, hadn't thought about that but you're right... you figure there was
probably a small window of opportunity for an extremely "fresh" coin to be
dropped, and then it needs to survive the elements. This one happened to
clean up, but I've found other silvers where the corrosion actually started to
get into the actual coin and trying to remove it just left it with pits.

thanks again and hh out there!

SilverDreams · February 7, 2006 8:06AM

Great job on cleaning this one up. I've never seen silver so crusted over.

Riccar · February 7, 2006 2:21PM

Thanks SD.
Most of the time when I do find these, the thought is usually:
"Alright a Barber! *sigh* ... ahhh, man, a barber."
This one turned out to be a surprise that ended with "Alright a Barber!"

One lonely, ugly, silver coin...

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